Nick’s Pay-Per-Review: WWE SummerSlam 2009

What’s up wrestling fans? I’m back with an in depth look at WWE’s 2009 SummerSlam event, which is considered by most to be the company’s second biggest PPV event of the year. The show was headlined by one of the best PPV matches I’ve seen so far this year, and bottomed out with The Great Khali vs Kane, who somehow proved that Khali has learned less about wrestling since the two of them clashed several years ago at Wrestlemania. That said, let’s take a look at all the action from The Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Intercontinental Title Match: Rey Mysterio vs Dolph Ziggler: This was an excellent way to start the PPV. I said awhile back, when these two first met on PPV, that I thought Ziggler should end up with the title, and while I still maintain that line of thought, I think the build to his eventual victory is what will do the most good for the talented rookie. We reported several weeks ago that Mysterio was not in favor of a short title run, and wanted something substantial considering that the booking of his World Heavyweight Championship reign left a lot to be desired by the high flier. While I mostly agree with this as Rey deserves a decent title run, I think the real benefit to a longer title run for Rey will go to Dolph Ziggler as it will give him more opportunities to showcase his skills in the ring against Mysterio. If Ziggler had won the title back at Night of Champions, he would have plateaued. Instead, WWE is keeping the title just within arms reach so that we can enjoy the chase, and at the same time, allow Mysterio to build Ziggler’s star power with each consecutive bout. Unfortunately, the WWE creative team has done little to nothing with Ziggler’s character, so he has to get himself over with the fans using his ring work, and a good series of matches with Rey Mysterio can accomplish that. Out of a possible 9 stars, I give SummerSlam’s opening contest 7.5 Stars.

MVP vs Jack Swagger: This match, as well as whatever "build" it had going into it suffered from one major problem; neither of these guys were ever given enough time to really tell a story. Last night’s bout clocked in at just over 6 minutes, which is hardly enough time, on PPV, for two of Raw’s brightest stars to wrestle a good match or tell any kind of a story that anyone could really care about. Couple that with the fact that these guys have been given nothing more than about 3 minutes of ring time on Raw lately, and you have the recipe for a PPV bout that has no chance of really taking off the ground. Both wrestlers worked hard, the ring work was good, but there wasn’t enough of anything to make the live crowd and the people watching at home pop. 4.5 Stars.